Glitches, “flash crashes” & other disturbances are becoming too numerous. “Why is this happening?” Those words were undoubtedly spoken on Wall Street Thursday. Perhaps you uttered them, too. At 12:14pm EST, a glitch halted all trading on the NASDAQ for more than three hours. During that...
If implemented, privatization may have significant side effects. On Capitol Hill and elsewhere, voices are calling for a major shift in public pension plan management – a shift toward privatization. Underfunding of public pensions is all too common. The bankruptcies of Detroit, Stockton and San Bernardino have...
While the idea of retirement has changed, certain financial assumptions haven’t. We’ve all heard about the “new retirement”, the mix of work and play that many of us assume we will have in our lives one day. We do not expect “retirement” to be all leisure....
Are they threatening the recovery? Or is their effect overstated? Between early May and mid-July, the average interest rate on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose about 1%. Rates on 30-year FRMs have basically held steady since hitting a peak of 4.51% in Freddie Mac’s July 11...
How many retirees face the possibility of less recurring income? On July 18, Detroit became the largest American city to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. What will happen to the pensions of its 20,000+ retired public employees? There is a possibility they could be reduced –...
Can the federal government follow through on its ambitions? In 2014, we were supposed to see profound health care reform per the 2011 Affordable Care Act – but how much of that reform will roll out on time? The federal government has already conceded that it can’t...
WEEKLY QUOTE“Do first things first and second things not at all.” - Peter Drucker WEEKLY TIP The recently divorced and those planning to divorce should review their insurance coverage in light of changing needs. WEEKLY RIDDLE What has two hands but will never clap? Last week’s riddle: Wide as a grapefruit, deep...
Retirement & estate planning strategies are being greatly altered. When the Supreme Court affirmed the legality of same-sex marriage in June, its ruling profoundly altered the financial planning landscape for gay and lesbian couples – resulting in some “night and day” differences. Yet in looking at the...
Keep calm & carry on – it may be good for your portfolio. Why do so many retirement savers under-perform the market? From 1993-2012, the S&P 500 achieved a (compound) annual return of 8.2%. Across the same period, the average investor in U.S. stock funds got...
WEEKLY QUOTE“In the successful organization, no detail is too small to escape close attention.” - Lou Holtz WEEKLY TIP Ongoing expenses are common in life – mortgage payments, monthly bills and so forth. View your retirement savings effort in the same way – a monthly expense...